THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE. 
SANITARY CODE. 
[Adopted by the Board of Aidermen, July 2,1384.] 
The sanitary code of the city of Providence shall consist of the 
following rules : 
1. When any premises are situated on any street where there is a 
public sewer, such premises shall, if so ordered by the board of 
aidermen, be connected with said sewer in such manner that any or 
all the drainage of said premises, as directed by said board, whether 
water or liquid filth of any kind, shall flow into said sewer. 
2. Every dwelling house, tenement house, or other building occu- 
pied by human beings, shall have at least one suitable water-closet,, 
or privy, properly ventilated and communicating directly with the' 
open air, to every fifteen occupants of said dwelling house, tenement 
house or other occupied building; occupants of two or more houses 
may use the same water-closet or privy, if access thereto be direct, 
and the above proportion of users be not exceeded. 2 
3. Vaults of privies shall be sunk under ground, contain at least 
sixty cubic feet, and be built of brick or stone laid in cement, as fol- 
lows : the inside not less than three feet from the line of every adjoin- 
ing lot, (except by consent of the owner of said lot) ; not less than 
two feet from the line of every private or public passage-way, and be 
so constructed that no surface water can find access to them. Every 
such vault shall have convenient approaches for opening and clean- 
ing and such approaches shall be properly covered. 
4. Every lodging-house, tenement-house, and dwelling-house, 
shall, unless connected with a public sewer, be provided with a suit- 
able cess-pool properly connected with the house-drain. 
5. No person shall deposit or allow to be deposited in any privy- 
vault, cess-pool or water-closet, any ashes, swill, rubbish, refuse, or 
any other substance except that of which any such place is the 
appropriate receptacle, nor shall any surface water be allowed to run 
into any vault or cess-pool. 
6. No person shall allow the contents of any privy-vault or cess- 
pool to rise within one foot of any part of the top, or to become in 
any way a nuisance or offensive ; and when required by the superin- 
tendent of health, any owner of such privy-vault or cess-pool shall 
disinfect the same in such manner as may be required by said super- 
intendent. 
7. Every cess-pool shall be properly covered with stone or iron, 
so that the cover can be readily removed and the contents inspected. 
Every cess-pool shall, if required by the board of aidermen, be water- 
tight. No cess-pool or privy-vault shall be allowed under a side- 
walk or occupied building. 
8. No well shall be used as a cess-pool or privy-vault, and vaults 
or cess-pools, the use of which is discontinued, shall be filled with 
earth, sand, gravel or ashes, but shall not be so filled before their 
contents have been removed. 3 
9. Every house-drain leading into a vault, cess-pool or public 
sewer shall be properly trapped. 
10. Every water-closet and soil-pipe shall be thoroughly flushed 
and proper and adequate means for such flushing shall in every case 
be provided. 
11. Every soil-pipe and the trap of every water-closet shall be 
properly ventilated. 
12. Every water-closet, urinal, set-bowl, tub, sink, bath or other 
fixture shall be provided with a suitable trap, situated as near as 
possible to such fixture, and so constructed and arranged as to pre- 
vent the escape through said fixture of any odors or gases. 
13. No person shall permit any privy, urinal, water-closet or other 
fixture, or any drain, waste-pipe, soil-pipe or catch-basin to become 
a nuisance or in any way offensive ; nor shall any person allow any 
injurious substance to pass into any drain or waste-pipe, or allow 
any drain, waste-pipe or soil-pipe to become obstructed or to leak. 
But if such drain, waste-pipe or soil-pipe shall become obstructed or 
shall leak, the owner, agent, occupant or other person having the 
charge of the premises on which such drain, waste-pipe or soil-pipe 
is situated, shall find and remove such obstruction, and find and re- 
move such leak. If any sewer-gas or foul odor shall escape from 
any drain, soil-pipe, waste-pipe or any fixture into any cellar or any 
part of an occupied building, the owner, agent or lessee of such 
cellar or building shall immediately find out and remedy whatever 
may cause such escape. 
14. Every occupied building must, when required by the board 
of aidermen, be provided with an adequate sub-soil drain, and the 
cellar walls and floor must be made impervious to moisture. 
15. Pipes that must be left open to drain cellars, areas, yards or 
gardens must be connected with suitable catch-basins, the bottoms of 4 
which shall not be less than two and one-half feet below the bottom 
of the outlet pipe, the diameter not less than three feet, and of a 
form proper for the purpose. When hotels, eating-houses, manufac- 
tories or business buildings of any kind, the waste water from which 
contains a large amount of grease or solid matter, are connected with 
a sewer, the catch-basins shall be made of such size and in such man- 
ner as shall satisfy the board of public works. No privy-vault, ma- 
nure-pit or carriage-wash shall be connected with a sewer except 
through an intervening catch-basin ; and the discharge-pipe of the 
vault shall be high enough above its bottom to effectually prevent 
anything but the liquid contents of the vault from passing into the 
drain. 
16. Every dwelling-house, tenement-house, or other occupied 
building shall have an adequate supply of drinkable water at one or 
more accessible points. 
17. Whenever, in the opinion of the superintendent of health, 
the use of any well or cistern is dangerous to health, the use of such 
well or cistern shall be discontinued, and such well or cistern shall 
be filled with ashes, sand or gravel, or shall have a suitable stone or 
iron cover cemented down. 
18. Every tenement-house, dwelling-house or other building where 
swill or garbage shall accumulate, shall be provided with a suitable 
receptacle for such swill or garbage, and no ashes or other rubbish of 
any kind shall be placed in any such receptacle, nor shall any swill, 
garbage or offal be placed in any receptacle for ashes or rubbish, or 
deposited in any yard or vault or any other place than its proper 
receptacle. 
19. No owner, lessee or occupant of any building or premises 
within the city shall deposit or allow to be deposited, or allow to 
remain upon or in said building or premises, any dirt, offal, decaying 
animal or vegetable matter, or solid or liquid filth of any kind, which, 5 
in the opinion of the superintendent of health, is in any way offen- 
sive or a nuisance. 
20. Every owner or keeper of a lodging-house, and every owner, 
lessee and occupant of a tenement-house or other building leased for 
a dwelling, shall thoroughly cleanse all and every part of such house 
or building, and shall also thoroughly cleanse every yard, court, pas- 
sage, area or alley connected with or belonging to the same, to the 
satisfaction of the superintendent of health, whenever in the opinion 
of said superintendent it shall be necessary for the health of the 
occupants or the public health. 
21. No vault, cellar or under-ground room shall be let or occu- 
pied separately as a dwelling, nor in a tenement or lodging house, as 
a place of lodging or sleeping. A cellar shall mean any basement 
or lower story of any building or house of which one-half or more 
of the height from the floor to the ceiling is below the level of the 
ground adjoining. 
22. No owner or lessee of any building or any part thereof shall 
lease or let or hire out the same or any part thereof to be occupied by 
any person, or allow the same to be occupied, if said building or any 
part thereof shall be inadequate or defective in respect to strength, pro- 
tection, ventilation, light, sewerage or to any other usual, proper or 
necessary provision or precaution for the security of life and health, 
nor unless said building and every part thereof shall be in all re- 
spects in a condition of cleanliness and wholesomeness. 
23. The board of aidermen may order the vacation of any building 
certified to them by the superintendent of health to be unfit for a 
dwelling, because infected or because in any way dangerous to the 
health of the occupants. A notice for such vacating must be served 
on the occupants of such building, and also served on the owner, 
agent or lessee. And such notices shall be served by any police con- 
stable of the city. And if the person or persons so notified, or any 6 
of them, shall neglect or refuse to remove from and quit such build- 
ing within the time specified in the notice, the chief of police is hereby 
authorized and empowered forcibly to remove them, when so ordered 
by the board of aidermen. 
24. For purposes of sanitary inspection and examination the 
superintendent of health and every person authorized by him shall 
have free access to any part of every building and premises within 
the city. 
25. Whenever a nuisance shall exist upon or in any building or 
premises, the superintendent of health shall, except as may be other- 
wise provided, issue a notice to the owner, lessee or agent of such 
building or premises, to abate such nuisance within a specified time ; 
and such notice shall be served by any police constable of the city. 
If such nuisance be not abated within the specified time, the superin- 
tendent of health is authorized to abate such nuisance ; provided, 
that the cost of abating any such nuisance shall not exceed the sum 
of twenty-five dollars. The city treasurer shall pay the expenses of 
the same, and the owner and lessee of such building or premises 
shall be severally liable therefor, and the same shall be recoverable 
from the owner or lessee by an action in the name of the city 
treasurer, to the use of the city of Providence, before any court of 
competent jurisdiction. 
26. Any person violating any provision of this code wherein no 
penalty is herein otherwise prescribed, shall be fined not less than 
five nor more than twenty dollars for every violation thereof, and 
shall be fined nor exceeding twenty dollars for each day's continuance 
of the said violation after the service of the notice issued upon the 
first complaint.